I got this letter in the mail today. Obviously no name attached to it because people are cowards and want to share opinions but don’t want to stand behind them. Anyway I thought you would get a kick out of it.

“Pastor Jason,
I have visited your church a few times. I have decided your church is not for me. First…I think the band and the lights take away from the presence of God. I think the band has taken over the church. Instead of lights…why not put up a cross? I am trying to be practical and sincere. When I read about the date experience, it boggled my mind. This has nothing to do with outreach and it will benefit leaders of the church I’m sure. To me church is about helping the sick, caring for others who are broken, leading people to God. I have heard you call people idiots in your sermon. I have also seen where you plan on a project called “No Perfect People Allowed”, well forgive me, but I knew a friend who went there and they told me you all had your “OWN” people to run your congregation and the people were very self centered and cared nothing about reaching out to others. After visiting, I think it would be best to find a church who is caring, loving, and that is willing to step out of it’s comfort zone to help others.”

I would have to agree with you anonymous person you probably do need to find another church. If you know of any needy families who need school supplies be sure to tell them to come to our Bless Back Project on July 27. Tell them to look for us we have a cross on the top of our building.

This week is part 2 of the “Big God, little me” series. When I was working on this series I wanted to give a real life example of what this looks like. As we saw in week 1, Big God is up to something Big. He has a story and invites us to play a part in that. It’s not our story and we aren’t the main characters but for some crazy reason he gives us a chance to play.

This sunday I will be interviewing Kristen Pace. You will get to hear her amazing story, after graduating college she left the states for Cambodia to work with needy kids. It’s an amazing example of how Big God gives us the chance to make him bigger to the world.

I cannot tell you how excited I am about this service. Please plan on being with us, and maybe you could bring someone with you.

If you want to find out more about Kristen you can check out her blog, and her facebook page

Well this weekend has been an amazing few days for our church. It got started Saturday morning with our Easter Eggstravaganza for the families in the communities. We had kids and parents all over the place starting at 12:00. It was a great event, which shouldn’t surprise us because Jennifer always knows how to throw a great event. One thing Jennifer is always intentional in doing is making sure that kids understand the reason for all the events. It’s just candy and games but it’s because of Jesus, and she did another great job with that again this year. Here are a few pics for you to check out.

After the Eggstravaganza we had what we called “Clean and Pray” We had around 20-30 volunteers show up to help clean up the church and get it ready for all the guests that would be coming on Sunday. After the clean up we spent some time praying and reflecting about what theis weekend is all about and specifically praying about people coming to know Him at the end of the service. It was some really special moments. I was thrilled to see all of the volunteers show up. I wasn’t sure what to expect since this was the first year, but I was blown away by all of our volunteers. Thank you so much for everything you did Saturday.

Sunday all of the crew started showing up around 8:30 am for us to do all the sound checks and tech stuff, and when 9:30 rolled around we started our 2 services. The services were amazing. We were expecting a large crowd but I don’t think we were expecting crowds like we had. At our 11:00 we ran out of all of our extra chairs. Stu and the band rocked out and Mandy and everyone in the back was flawless with sound and lights and videos. All in all in was some great services. But the best part of it all was the end that we had been praying for. We had 12 people give their heart to Christ for the first time. It was truly an amazing experience as they came forward with the background of the applause coming from everyone in the crowd. And after we prayed together Stu and the guys led us in “Happy Day.” I always love our Sundays but today was defintely something special.

Thank you to everyone who helped in any part of this weekend. Everything you did no matter how big or small played a huge part in 12 people meeting Jesus Sunday. Thank you, Thank you, Thank You. I am so grateful to God that he allows me to be one of your pastors.

We are starting a new series on March 29th about money, debt, and greed. We shot this promo for the series. It was inspired by some of the great work over at LifeChurch.tv

- Perry started with his token speech….”Some of you are gonna walk out…”

Matthew 16:18
And I tell you that you are Peter,[a] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[b] will not overcome it.

- God will build his church

3 Questions for the Church
1. Are we willing to embrace change?
2 Kings 7:3-4
Now there were four men with leprosy [d] at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’-the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”

- Everyone can look at another church and see the change they need to make we just can’t see it in ourselves.

2. Are we willing to work?

2 Kings 7:5-7

At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, not a man was there, for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!” So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.

- Investigate the obvious
What areas do you know you need to do something about that everyone already knows

- Ignore the jackass

3. Are we serious about reaching the world
Missional is the most overplayed word in the church. It’s pretty obvious everyone is missional

We started our prayer series this week. We will be going 3 weeks, and we wanted to start by taking a hard look at prayer, and have a tough discussion about praying for our desires vs. God’s will. We looked at Jesus in the garden as a great example of this.

Cecil is speaking this Sunday and I will be coming back for the 3rd and final week.

Ok so today was Philippians 3, and I got so busy today that I didn’t get a chance to read until tonight. So I know it’s late but remember it’s not about when you do it, it’s THAT YOU DO IT!

Well I’m back and it Day 4 of our Bible Reading Challenge. Today we started a new book with Philippians 1 & 2.

Just a little background info for you. Philippians is Paul’s happiest letter he wrote. Which is a little odd because he spends a good bit of time talking about his chains and imprisonment. He is extremely happy though because of his love and affections for the church. You can see right at the beginning of his letter how much he deeply cares for them. Also we see that Paul has a deep confidence that his pain and sufering is advancing and defending the gospel which also makes him joyful.

Ok so below I have a video of my thoughts. Enjoy! And let’s get those comments coming.

Im’ on the road back to Louisville today. I will have my thoughts posted tonight. Also for some reason I left Ephesians 6 off of the plan. I’m not sure how I missed that so if you read this in time go ahead and read chapter 6 as well.

Go ahead and leave comments if you have already read today. It’s going great everyone.

Jason

Well If you made it back to Day 2 then that means you probably accomplished Day 1 so let me start by saying congratulations…keep it up!

Below I have posted a 2 min. video of my thoughts from Ephesians 3 & 4. Enjoy! I’m loving the comments so keep them coming.